Pippa Hudson

During President Cyril Ramaphosa's maiden Q&A in Parliament on Wednesday, EFF leader Julius Malema asked how much had been spent on former president Jacob Zuma’s legal fees since 2009 and which policy had informed that decision.

Ramaphosa responded that the government had spent R15.3-million in court cases related to the withdrawal of criminal charges against Jacob Zuma between 2006 and 2009.

He added that this was based on the advice from the Department of Justice and the Presidency after Jacob Zuma undertook to pay back the money should he not succeed in defeating the charges against him.

However, Julius Malema was not impressed with that answer‚ saying it did not include other legal cases in which the taxpayer had footed the bill, such as litigation on Nkandla and Zuma's court challenges against the Public Protector’s state of capture report.

Speaking to Eusebius McKaiser, Karyn Maughan, Legal journalist at Tiso Blackstar and Checkpoint producer along with legal mind Ben Winks, took a look at exactly how much society had to pay for the former president's myriad legal cases.

Maughan said the R15.3 million was the litigation costs since 1 May 1, 2009. She said April 2009 was when Mokotedi Mpshe made the decision to withdraw the Zuma prosecution, therefore the costs subsequent to that, in terms of the personal and legal fees of the president relate solely to the spy tapes litigation and that case dragged on for eight years.

You just litigate, litigate, litigate on cases then you concede.

— Karyn Maughan, Legal journalist

Listen below to the exact figures South African society had to pay towards Zuma's legal fees: